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“I think Millie should start with when she met Jacob. We’ll fill in what we know, and then, Lira, you fill in what you know. And maybe by the end of it, we’ll figure out what has been going on,” Becca said.
Millie nodded and started talking about her encounter with Jacob. That day at the gallery seemed such a long time ago now, but the girls nodded as she told them of her first meeting with Jacob. They filled in the holes, confirming Jacob had become smitten with her as soon as he met her. They also told us that Bruno had met Millie at the gallery as well.
She corrected them to say Bruno did not meet her at the gallery. She had actually never met Bruno until yesterday, when she fled screaming.
“Why were you screaming?” I asked.
“We’re getting there,” Millie said. “Don’t rush the story.”
“You’re the one who brought it up,” I said, leaning back with a pout and crossing my arms.
“Then who was it that Bruno met?” Jill asked.
They all turned to look at me, and guilt rushed through me that I’d pretended to be Millie. “I don’t regret anything I did,” I said quickly. “Bruno is a gentleman. Anyone would have been smitten with him.”
“So, Millie, you met Jacob. And Lira, you met Bruno—who thought you were Millie,” Jill said, looking between the two of us.
“That’s correct,” Millie said. “Lira was pretending to be me that day because I was supposed to go in to the gallery, but I was so tired the day Lira took my place, and she owed me a favor that she went instead. She pretended she was me that day. It’s an old game we used to play together.”
“I see,” Becca said.
“Don’t be judgey,” I said, leaning forward again. “You’d do the same thing if you had an identical twin. And who knew I’d fall for him at first sight? That only happens in romance books.”
Jill nodded before saying, “We’re not judging, just trying to figure out what’s happened here. We haven’t told you too much yet, but you should know Bruno is still recovering from the fight. Jacob is still healing as well but doing much better.”
“Bruno was in a fight?” I said, jumping out of my seat. Was he hurt? Was that why he hadn’t answered his phone? Fear squeezed my heart, and all I wanted to do was leave and go to him.
But Millie grabbed my arm and pulled me back down next to her on the couch.
“Millie, why don’t you tell us what happened yesterday?” Becca said.
Millie’s brows creased, and I could see her mind was turning as she began to say, “Wait . . . so I met Jacob, and Lira met Bruno, but she was pretending to be me. She gave him her number, thinking it was mine, but really, she gave him hers. So, when he called to ask Lira—who he thought was me—out, he thought he was carrying out his side of the bet?” She was starting to get red in the face, so I put a hand on her arm to calm her down.
The brothers’ bet was news to me and didn’t sit well, but I told myself I’d ask Millie about it later.
Becca took a big breath. “That about sums it up,” she said quietly.
“Can we ask what happened yesterday?” Jill now asked.
“Millie,” I said, pulling on her arm. “Please tell us. I really need to know.”
She sighed. “Okay. But please don’t think I’m crazy, because I already think I’m crazy, but I saw what I saw.”
“None of us will think you’re crazy,” Becca said. “I promise.”
Millie took a deep breath and began telling us about how Jacob had taken her ice skating. I was impressed she went with him, because she was not the daring kind, especially with new sports. Kudos to Jacob for persuading her. I smiled, thinking Millie might have met her match. Thinking about that, my mind drifted to Bruno, and I checked my phone to see there were still no missed calls or texts from him. But then Millie said something that brought me back to the conversation.
“Bruno showed up at the end of our skating session all wound up. He looked crazed.”
But I’d just spoken to him yesterday morning. He hadn’t sound crazed then. How could he have changed so much in such little time? My worry for him spiked, and I started typing another message to him on my phone.
Millie continued, “He said that Jacob was going to propose to me.”
I swung my head over to stare at Millie and could feel my jaw loosen but no words came out. Didn’t they just meet?
“But I never found out if that was true.” Millie’s voice hitched at the end, and I shuffled a little closer to her on the sofa. “Because . . .” Her face dipped, and she shook her head as if trying to dislodge a memory.
“What was it, Millie?” Jill asked. “We can handle it.”
